Chronicling civil-service life for California state workers

July 13, 2010

SEIU Local 1000, which represents some 95,000 state employees, reports that it made a contract offer last Friday and is now waiting for the Department of Personnel Administration's response.

The five-year proposal would run from July 1 of this year through June 30, 2015. It includes the following proposals and includes an unpaid personal leave program and a 5 percent COLA effective July 1, 2012 and another on July 1, 2015 for all union-represented employees.

Provisions for newly hired tier one and safety employees include doubling the retirement vesting period from the current 5 years to 10 years. Tier one hires would fall under a "New 2010 First Tier Retirement Formula" that changes the factors used to figure benefits from the current 2 percent at age 55 to 2 percent at age 60.

The proposals do not include protections against minimum wage withholding or furloughs. Local 1000 also didn't propose an increase to what state workers pay toward their own retirement, which is a feature of the six tentative agreements bargained so far.

Worth remembering: This is an early proposal. The end product will almost certainly look different as the union and administration talk more.

Click here to read the union's report on contract talks with links to the proposal documents.

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About The State Worker

The Author

Jon Ortiz launched The State Worker blog and a companion column in 2008 to cover state government from the perspective of California government employees. Every day he filters the news through a single question: "What does this mean for state workers?" Join Ortiz for updates and debate on state pay, benefits, pensions, contracts and jobs. Contact him at (916) 321-1043 and at jortiz@sacbee.com.

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